Air Freight Outlook Improves, Annual Growth Of 4.1 Percent Seen: IATA

The outlook for air freight demand is improving after several years in the doldrums, the International Air Transport Association said on Wednesday.

The industry body said that international freight volumes, an indicator of global trade demand, are expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 4.1 percent over the next five years.

"An average of more than 4 percent growth for the next five years would be a marked improvement on the performance of recent years," IATA Director General Tony Tyler said in a statement, adding that growth has averaged just 0.63 percent per year since 2011.

IATA also said that the United Arab Emirates will have replaced Germany as the third largest market for air freight by 2018, with the UAE, the United States and China set to add more than 1 million additional tonnes of freight by then.

More than $6.8 trillion worth of goods, equivalent to 35 percent of total world trade by value is expected to be transported by air freight in 2014.